Shield Charm

"It's covered in dust! You must be the first student in years to pick it up."

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At least some content in this article is derived from information featured in Wonderbook: Book of Spells. As such, spoilers will be present within the article. Please take care when reading this article if you have not yet been through the latest update.

The Shield Charm is a term applied to several varieties of charms that create a magical barrier to deflect physical entities and spells. Conjurations may sometimes rebound directly off it back towards the caster, or, in other cases, may ricochet off in other directions or dissipate as soon as they hit the shield.

The Shield Charm is a moderately difficult spell. Fred and George Weasley realised that most adult wizards, even those employed by the Ministry of Magic, could not produce a functional Shield Charm (something that Harry Potter was able to not only accomplish but also impart to members of the D.A.). They used this to their advantage when marketing their line of protective clothing (hats, cloaks, etc), upon which permanent Shield Charms were cast.

Harry once used the charm to defend himself against Professor Snape's Legilimency during Occlumency training, and found himself unexpectedly seeing some of Snape's memories. This was most likely the reason why Snape was using a Pensieve to store his memories, and thus to preserve his privacy.[2]

During his first sixth year Defence lesson, Harry and the other members of his class had to cast this spell non-verbally. When Snape tried to jinx him, Harry instinctively used a Shield Charm (verbally cast) that was powerful enough to throw Snape off his feet.

Harry cast the charm between Hermione and Ron after the latter returned, since Hermione was furious with Ron to the point of wanting to curse him.[4]

Other

Gilderoy Lockhart presumably attempted to demonstrate this charm, or something similar, to Harry during the first meeting of his duelling club, but all he truly wanted was to twirl his wand fancifully, which failed spectacularly, dropping his wand in the process.

Hermione Granger cast the Shield Charm in 1997, when Harry and Ron got into an argument during their search for the Horcruxes. Hermione cast the shield before they could draw their wands against one another. When Ron subsequently left, Hermione was hampered in trying to follow him and persuade him not to leave by her own shield.[4]

Severus Snape cast this charm to deflect Harry Potter's spells during their brief duel after he killed Albus Dumbledore.

Etymology

Known Variations

Behind the scenes

In the films, Shield Charms are used in nearly every duel shown, almost always used non-verbally and usually accompanied by a parry-like wand movement.

In the early video games, Expelliarmus functions as a shield charm, due to a lack of enemies to Disarm. In these games, Protego is absent.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Protego is shown several times to be able to block the Killing Curse. According to the books this is incorrect as the Killing Curse is "unblockable" which is the main reason for its particular infamy, but within the context of the films the fact is never mentioned.